Where there are vampires. Are there real vampires in real life? Bloody secrets of Bulgaria

Interest in vampire myths is at its highest level, eagerly fueled by fantasy novels. Last but not least, curiosity is the ability of vampires to possess supernatural abilities, and of course immortality. The huge attention to these creatures raises the question: do real vampires exist in real life?

Recent enthusiasm for this blood-sucking immortal began perhaps with Anne Rice's highly popular novel Interview with the Vampire, published in 1976. Several more books about the world of vampires that she created followed. Film and television have capitalized on this popularity with several films, revisiting the plot from the Middle Ages with Count Dracula.

More than anything, the genre has become more popular than ever thanks to the television series True Blood and The Vampire Diaries. Finally, the legend of the ancient vampires entered our lives thanks to the huge success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series of novels, which are also coming to the big screen.

When such a phenomenon penetrates our mass consciousness, fantasy and reality begin to combine - you almost turn around, fearing a vampire attack. Some people are actually beginning to think that they are from the ancient world, who live among us in disguise.

Perhaps they just want it to be real, because they love the fantasy so much where there are gnomes, elves and vampires, and of course the main character is a hunter of an immortal bloodsucker. So what about this, are there real vampires?

Supernatural Vampire.

The question of the actual existence of vampires among us depends on what we mean by this concept. If a vampire means a being with supernatural abilities and immortality, has fangs, is disgusted by sunlight, maybe afraid of garlic, crosses and even can fly ... then we say no, since nothing is known about such a creature.

At the very least, there is no conclusive evidence that it exists, and so far no one has claimed an encounter with such power and possibility. Such a creature is a persona from novels, television shows, and films. However, if we dispense with supernatural qualities, then there are people who call themselves vampires of one sort or another.

Vampire lifestyle

Largely due to the influence of vampires on the media, there is now a subculture of vampirism whose members seek to imitate the lifestyle of fictional heroes (or anti-heroes). There is some overlap with the goth community, where both tend to be empowering in the dark, mysterious side of things.

Vampire lifestyles dress in black, carrying elements and trappings of the "vampire aesthetic" taken from books and movies, favoring the gothic music genre. According to the forum, people who follow this lifestyle see it as more than just clubbing or socializing. They rather see it as part of their overall lifestyle, and even form alternative extended families based on clan patterns.

The vampire lifestyle does not claim supernatural powers with levitation or teleportation for fresh blood. And it would be unfair to shrug them off as people who just love to play with fantasy stories all year round. They are very serious about their way of life, because it satisfies their inner, and even spiritual need.

Sanguine vampire

Sanguine (i.e. bloody or blood red) vampires may belong to the groups mentioned above, but they have already gone out of their peaceful state by actually drinking human blood. As a rule, they do not drink a glass of drink, such as a glass of wine, but usually add a few drops to some other liquid to drink. Sometimes a sanguine vampire will feed directly from it by making a small incision and sucking out a small drop of blood.

Some of these bloody vampires claim that they really need to consume human blood. The human body is not very good at digesting blood, and there does not seem to be a physiological state that can satisfy such a need. If cravings are present, then it is almost certainly psychological in nature or simply a choice.

Psychic Vampires

Psychic vampires can adopt the lifestyle described above, that's just what they need. According to the Internet resource pages, pranic vampires, as they are sometimes called, are people "who, due to the state of their spirit, need to receive vital energy from external sources."

Psychic vampires cannot generate their own energy. It is said that these people cannot store the energy they have. One site even has a section on psychic "feeding tricks."

Again, in the spirit of "preserving reality," we must question whether this is a genuine phenomenon. It could be argued that the effect is strictly a psychological issue... although that may be why it's called psychic vampirism.

Psychopathic Vampire Maniac

If the lust for human blood qualifies a black-clad, fanged character as a vampire, then a few serial killers deserve a different label. At the crossroads of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Peter Kürten, known as the "Düsseldorf Vampire", committed nine murders and seven attempted murders. Seeing the blood of his victims, he experienced sexual arousal and was said to drink the spilled blood. Richard Trenton Chase known as the "Vampire of Sacramento" committed the murder of six people and drank the blood of his victims.

Obviously, these "vampires" are criminally insane. Ironically, their murderous and heinous practices make them more like the demonic vampires of literary tradition than the "vampires" described here.

Vampires have come a thorny path from a bloodthirsty dead man who got out of the grave to a little different from a person. Of course, this only applies to fictional stories. Do vampires really exist, the evidence has been trying to find more than one hundred years. Many nations have preserved legends about mysterious and terrible creatures that drink the blood of their victims. Let's try to figure out what are the chances of meeting a ghoul these days.

Vampires - do they exist in real life

Stories about the bloodthirsty dead originate in the first half of the 18th century, when there was an official investigation into the mystical posthumous activities of two Serbs - Petar Blagojevich and Arnold Paole. Vampires during life were quite decent people, but as soon as they died, they immediately went to pursue the living in order to drink all their blood. These and other stories were found and recorded by the Italian priest Calmet on behalf of the Pope, who wished to learn more about the nature of vampires. What is the evidence for the existence of blood-sucking corpses?

• Animals, insects and plants are known, the food for which is the liquid of other creatures. They do not have a mystical origin, but vampire bats approach sleeping mammals to feast on their blood, the sundew digests insects that have inadvertently fallen on its leaves, mosquitoes and leeches need no introduction.

• The disease of porphyria is the real basis for the legends of human vampires. This is a genetic pathology, one of the causes of which was closely related marriages. Such cases were not uncommon in the secluded villages of Transylvania about 1000 years ago. Under the influence of the disease, the production of the non-protein component of hemoglobin is disrupted. This critically affects the entire state of the body, which begins to be afraid of sunlight. Among the symptoms of porphyria, familiar signs of a vampire are recognized:

• The skin of the lips and around the mouth dries out, exposing the gums. It turns out a typical ghoul grin.
• The substance porphyrin, in addition, gives such a smile an appropriate bloody color.
• Scars and ulcers appear on the body due to thinning of the skin.
• Cartilage tissues (nose and ears) are damaged, fingers are twisted.
• Sufferers cannot appear in the sun: ultraviolet causes the breakdown of hemoglobin.
• Today, approximately 1 person in 200,000 people on the planet suffers from this rare genetic disease. Add to this medieval superstitions and the image of a bloodthirsty vampire is ready. However, a person in this state deserves sympathy and causes fear only by appearance.

Do vampires really exist?

Let us leave aside patients with porphyria and look for bloodsuckers in other groups. There is a whole subculture of vampires. These are people who dress appropriately, and sometimes go to the dentist to create real fangs. They are divided into two large groups:

• Sanguinarians drink blood (of course, not from the arteries of abducted people) and practice unusual sexual practices, which makes this branch related to BDSM culture.
• Psychic vampires act out feeding on life energy.

In 1997, the Black Veil code of conduct was created, to which each member of the group must adhere when communicating with outsiders. Some of the representatives believe in their immortality, expressed through reincarnation, or call themselves mediums.

There are also people who simply need to drink blood. They call themselves "real vampires" and are included in the relevant associations. They are far from the Gothic style, they do charity work and work at ordinary jobs.

Whether there are vampires in our time - it's hard to say. On the one hand - , on the other - a subculture of strange people, generated by legends about blood-sucking ghouls. Let the readers decide for themselves whether the given evidence deserves the right to authority. But what about stories about attacks by bloodthirsty corpses that ended after the imperishable dead was pierced with an aspen stake?

There are many websites dedicated to vampires on the Internet. On one of them I found Alice. She is the only one who agreed to answer the questions, as they say, live.

Alice is a pretty girl of about 25 with a pale face, bright scarlet lips and ashy hair - nothing unusual. But as soon as she smiled, her slightly enlarged upper fangs were revealed. I was even overcome with excitement: no matter how the interview ended with bloodshed.

“Alice, is it true that you drink human blood?” – I asked the first question in the forehead.

- Yes it is. But why is everyone interested in this, and not our other abilities and problems? After all, if you are not like everyone else, then you have to pay for it. The more sensitive you are, the more you are irritated by sounds and smells. The better your night vision, the more sensitive you are to sunlight. I can't stand garlic and always feel if other people have eaten it, even when it was a few days ago. I constantly have to smear sunscreen, otherwise the skin peels off ... And that's not all.

How did you become a vampire?

“My journey has been long. I am a skeptic by nature, I like to get to the bottom of everything, which is why, by the way, I work as a lawyer. If at the very beginning someone had told me that I was a vampire, I would have decided that this person was a complete idiot. Changes began at the age of 17. I stopped going to the beach because the sun burned my skin and later I had problems with my eyes. I was hungry all the time, the weight jumped plus or minus two or three kilograms every month. There was a feeling of heaviness in the stomach. I went to the doctors, they examined me, but they could not help. And I had the same dreams. As if some creatures are explaining something to me, but I do not understand them. And it's like I'm running away from someone. Years later, I realized: I was running away from myself. And there was an unbearable longing that did not pass.

So I lived for 9 years, until I tasted blood. I agreed with a neighbor in the apartment, which we rented together. I then took only 5 grams of blood from him. Instantly the world became brighter, sadness disappeared, hunger disappeared. I was absolutely happy.

- Can this state be compared with a narcotic buzz?

– From drugs, the body suffers damage, and when a person wakes up, he understands this and regrets the mistake. And then you get up in the morning - and the body sings. This is true happiness.

– Where do you take blood and how often should you drink it?

- I drink once every six days, about 6 liters a year. We take blood from people who donate it voluntarily. I call them donors. The vampire and the giver must like each other. After some time, you understand the donor without words, he becomes a part of your "I", and you feel him, being hundreds of kilometers away.

- How is the process going?

“Some use cuts. Live contact is attractive. But I use a disposable syringe, I take blood through a vein. Everything must be sterile and safe. Prior to this, the donor takes a blood test, and I can be sure that I will not get infected from him. True, once I did this with a stranger. He pestered me in the park, and I stunned him: I confessed that I was a vampire and offered him a try. I am ashamed of that act.

Why do donors agree to this?

“People by nature love to donate, to give. Some people are just curious. But for everyone who gives their energy with blood, something good happens in life.

- They say they still take blood at transfusion stations?

“Frozen blood might be an alternative. But something is not right about her. When you drink such blood, it seems to evaporate already in the esophagus. I rarely resort to this, I have enough donors. I don't drink animal blood. But I eat raw meat, it also gives strength.

- What happens if you are “in the eyeballs” for a long time?

- My hands tremble, convulsions begin, a feeling of hunger comes. I look at the exposed parts of the body of strangers. Then apathy sets in, emotions fade, as if you were a living corpse.

Can a hungry vampire attack a human?

- Never. We value people too much, as any manifestation of life in general.

- In Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" everything is not so ...

The novel is a fiction of the writer. Although, perhaps, such a commander lived, and his wounds quickly healed. It is likely that he drank the blood of his enemies - then the morals were terrible. But he did not possess immortality and could not turn into a bat.

- Do you have supernatural powers?

– Animals, plants and children are drawn to me. I can relieve pain with my hands. Once I ran for eight hours without a break, and somehow I swam two kilometers in an hour, although I had not swum for seven whole years. Many of us look younger than their years. There are only four real vampires in Moscow, although many call themselves such. We know each other, we meet, we share experiences. But it's hard for us to be around all the time. Vampires don't know how to love like humans. Something is missing in us, and we take it from people.

Do your loved ones know that you are a vampire?

– At work, I don’t tell anyone about this and usually dress more strictly. Mom, I hope, also does not guess. The young man knows, but accepts me for who I am.

Is being a vampire for life?

- I hope not. After all, it is an addiction that complicates my existence. I always think about how to satisfy my hunger.

Interesting

In New York, there is a scientific Vampire Research Center (vampire research center), which deals with the study of vampirism. It was founded by Professor Stefan Kaplan, who, through research, established that among people there are those who cannot live without the use of warm blood. Moreover, this dependence is not psychological, but physiological. That is, with the head of the vampires everything is in order. Kaplan compiled a questionnaire to identify "bloodsuckers", sent it to potential candidates and thus calculated one and a half thousand natural vampires around the world.

Victoria Kolodonova

To date, there are a large number of various legends about various mythical creatures. To this number, mankind began to attribute myths and legends about vampires and vampirism in general. Only the question of whether vampires actually existed is still open.

Scientific rationale

Like any other object or object, vampires also have a scientific justification for the birth of various folklore works with their participation. According to most researchers, the word "vampire" and information about all its properties began to appear in the lower mythology of European peoples. It is also worth paying attention to the fact that there are vampire people in other cultures almost all over the world, but they have their own names and individual descriptions.

A vampire is a dead person who climbs out of his grave at night and begins to drink the blood of sometimes attacking awake victims. These creatures appear before the victim in the form of a person, practically no different from ordinary people, and in the form of a bat.

Ancient peoples believed that people who had created a large amount of evil during their lives became vampires. This contingent included criminals, murderers, suicides. They also became people who died a violent premature death, and after the moment when the vampire bite was made.

Literary representations and film images

In the modern world, vampire people have become widely known to the public through the creation of numerous mystical films and books. It is only worth paying attention to one important fact - the mythical image is slightly different from the literary one.

Probably, first it is worth saying a few words about the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "The Ghoul" (poem) and Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy "The Family of Ghouls" (the writer's early story). It is worth noting that the creation of these works dates back to the 19th century.

The well-known writers mentioned above recreated the horrors about vampires in a slightly different way - the appearance of a ghoul. In principle, ghouls are no different from their ancestors. Only this image does not drink the blood of any people, but only relatives and closest ones. As a result of this, if you can call it that, pickiness in food, entire villages died out. He also gnaws on the bones of people killed or died of natural causes.

Bran Stoker was able to embody the most believable image in his hero by creating Dracula. You can turn to the history of the creation of the image and the history of the world at the same time - a real living person became the collecting image for the writer's work. This man was Vlad Dracula, the ruler of Wallachia. Based on the facts of history, it was a rather bloodthirsty person.

Characteristic features of artistic vampires

As mentioned earlier, the artistic description of the vampire is different from the mythological. And then the creatures as they are portrayed in literature and cinema will be considered.

Character traits:

Analogues of the vampire in other nationalities

Horrors about vampires existed not only in the folklore of the peoples of Europe, but also in other ancient cultures. Only they have different names and descriptions.

• Dahanavar. This name originated in ancient Armenian mythology. Based on mythological data, this vampire lives in the mountains of Ultish Alto-tem. It is worth noting that this vampire does not touch the people who live on its territory.
• Vetaly. These creatures belong to Indian stories. Vampire-like creatures inhabit the dead.
• Lame corpse. The Chinese analogue of the European vampire, only the first does not feed on blood, but on the essence of the victim (qi).
• Strix. A bird that stays awake at night and consumes human blood as food. Roman mythology.

Also, the question of whether vampires actually existed was raised at different times among different peoples.

Controversy about vampires

There have been cases in history when a hunt for a vampire was announced. This happened in the 18th century. Starting in 1721, complaints from residents about vampire attacks began to appear in the territory. The reason was the strange murders of local residents. The most interesting thing was that the bodies of the dead were bled.

After these cases, the famous scientist Antoine Augustin Calmet raised the question of whether vampires actually existed in his books. He collected the necessary information and wrote a treatise on these cases. Many scientists began to ask this question, began to open the graves. It all ended with the ban of Empress Maria Theresa.

Modern Vampires

There are a large number of folk stories, myths, films about vampires. Everyone knows that these are fictions, but the influence of mythology, figuratively speaking, gave vampire blood to some modern people. These representatives are members of one of the many subcultures of our time - vampirism.

People who consider themselves vampires behave like fictional blood-sucking creatures. They dress in black clothes, arrange their own events, and also drink human blood. Only the last action does not apply to killings. Usually the victim gives away part of himself on his own, so that modern vampires, if I may say so, can eat.

Energy vampires

The question of whether vampires actually existed is asked by many people. With a greater degree of probability, we can say about the existence of real vampires from an energy point of view. In other words, about the existence of energy vampires.

These creatures are people who feed on the energy power of other people. An ordinary person replenishes energy reserves in accessible ways: food, entertainment, watching movies, etc. But energy vampires lack this, they also feed on the energy of other people, worsening the condition of their victims.

Conclusion

You can talk for a long time on this topic, but all this will remain unconfirmed. In this world, many facts remain outside the bounds of modern science, and these myths and stories will also be just guesses and conjectures. Modern man can only read interesting mystical literature and watch films, reflecting on these issues.

There is not a single adult on Earth who does not know who vampires are. Usually we imagine them as a super race, if I may say so, who drink the blood of ordinary people, which helps them live forever. And their only weak points are an aspen stake in the heart, garlic water and sunlight. Not so much, do you agree? But do vampires exist in real life?

Facts about the existence of vampires

There is even official evidence of the existence of vampires. For example, in 1721, another 62-year-old resident of East Prussia named Peter Blagojevich went into the world. So, official documents indicate that after his death he visited his son several times, who was later found dead. In addition, the alleged vampire attacked several neighbors, drinking their blood, from which they also died.

One of the inhabitants of Serbia, Arnold Paole, claimed that during the haymaking he was bitten by a vampire. After the death of this vampire victim, several of his fellow villagers died. People began to believe that he turned into a vampire and began to hunt people.

In the cases described above, the authorities conducted investigations, which did not give realistic results, since the interviewed witnesses implicitly believed in the existence of vampires, basing their testimony on this. Investigations only created panic among the locals, people began to dig up the graves of those who were suspected of vampirism.

Similar sentiments also spread in the West. In the city of Rhode Island (USA) in 1982, at the young age of 19, Mercy Brown died. After that, someone from her family fell ill with tuberculosis. The unfortunate girl was blamed for what happened, after which her father, together with the family doctor, two months after the funeral, took out the corpse from the tomb, cut out the heart from the chest and set it on fire.

The theme of vampirism has reached our days

Needless to say, vampire stories were believed in the past. In 2002-2003, an entire state in Africa - Malawi, was covered by a real "vampire epidemic". Locals threw stones at a group of people suspected of vampirism. One of them was beaten to death. At the same time, the authorities were accused of nothing less than a criminal conspiracy with vampires!

In 2004, there was a story associated with the name of Tom Petre. His relatives were afraid that he had become a vampire, pulled the body out of the grave, burned the torn out heart. The collected ashes were mixed with water and drunk.

The first scientific publication on the subject of vampirism was by Michael Ranft in 1975. In his book De masticatione mortuorum in tumulis, he wrote that death after contact with a vampire could occur due to the fact that a living person was infected with ptomaine or the disease that he had during his lifetime. And nightly visits to loved ones could be nothing more than a hallucination of especially impressionable people who believed in all these stories.

Porphyria Disease - Legacy of the Vampire

Only in the second half of the twentieth century, scientists discovered a disease called porphyria. This disease is so rare that it occurs in only one person in a hundred thousand, but is inherited. The disease is due to the fact that the body cannot produce red blood cells. As a result, oxygen and iron are in short supply, pigment metabolism is disturbed.

The myth that vampires are afraid of sunlight is due to the fact that in patients with porphyria, under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, the breakdown of hemoglobin begins. And they do not go garlic, because it contains sulfonic acid, which aggravates the disease.

The skin of the patient takes on a brown tint, becomes thinner, exposure to the sun leaves scars and ulcers on it. The incisors are exposed as the skin around the mouth of the lips and gums dries out and becomes tough. This is how the legends about vampire fangs appeared. The teeth become reddish or red-brown. Mental disorders are not excluded.

About a thousand years ago, the disease was very common among the villages of Transylvania. Most likely this was due to the fact that the villages were small and many closely related marriages took place in them.

Renfield syndrome

At the end of the conversation about vampires, one cannot help but recall the mental disorder named after another hero of Stoker - the "Renfield syndrome". Patients suffering from this disease drink the blood of animals or humans. Serial maniacs had this disease, among which are Peter Kürten from Germany and Richard Trenton Chase from the USA, who drank the blood of the people they killed. These are the real vampires.

The beautiful legend about immortal and deadly attractive creatures that draw vital energy from the blood of their victims is just a terrible story.